Traveling Cable Hat

Although cables look complicated, they’re only slightly more difficult than putting one foot in front of the other! These Traveling Cable Hats present the perfect opportunity to hone your cabling skills. Where an Aran sweater is the marathon of cable knitting, these hats are the 100-meter dash, every bit as beautiful but with the finish line in sight!

And with its remarkable stitch definition and undefeated softness, Purl Soho’s Alpaca Pure is the ideal yarn to show off the hard work (and beauty!) of cable knitting. Pick up a skein or two here and you’re off! -Gina

Update: November 2014

We now have a Traveling Cable Hat for Kids! Rather than casting on 3 repeats, like I did for the Alpaca Pure Baby size, I cast 2 repeats onto some big ol’ needles in our Super Soft Merino! For more photos and the full pattern, click here!

Materials

1 (2) skein(s) of Purl Soho’s Alpaca Pure, 100% alpaca. I used the color Heirloom White for the Baby Hat and Artemisia for the Adult Hat.

Notes

When knitting the body of the hat, I found it helpful to separate each repeat (30 stitches) of the cable pattern with a stitch marker. (Just be sure to use a different color marker for the end of the round!) Alternatively, you could knit the whole hat on double pointed needles and put each repeat on its own double pointed needle.

How to Make a Left Cross (LC)

When you get to a Left Cross (LC), you will have 3 knit stitches on the left hand needle.

Slip these three knit stitches purlwise to a cable stitch holder. (“Purlwise” means to insert the right needle into each stitch as if you were purling it.)

Keep the cable stitch holder at the front of the work.

Purl one stitch from the left hand needle.

Slide the slipped stitches to the other end of the cable needle. (Do not spin the cable needle or try to knit the stitches from the same end that you used to slip the stitches.) Now knit the 3 stitches from the cable stitch holder.

How to Make a Right Cross (RC)

Making the Right Cross is like making a Left Cross in reverse.

When you get to a Right Cross, you will have 1 purl stitch followed by 3 knit stitches on the left hand needle. You will…

Slip the purl stitch from the left hand needle onto a cable stitch holder; hold the cable stitch holder to the back of your work; knit the 3 stitches from the left hand needle; purl the stitch from the cable stitch holder.

Pattern

Ribbing

With smaller needle, cast on 63 (84) stitches.

Place a marker and join to work in the round, being careful to not twist the stitches.

Cut yarn, leaving an 8-inch tail. Thread the tail onto a tapestry needle and sew it through the remaining stitches twice. Pull tight to close the hole at the crown. Bring the tail to the inside of the hat and weave it in. Weave in any remaining ends and enjoy your Traveling Cable Hat!

180 Responses to Traveling Cable Hat

Hello! I can’t wait to get started on this hat (the yarn just came today). I was wondering if you have a chart for this pattern? I feel it’s much easier to keep track of where I am with a chart in front of me. I love charts. Thank you!

Is there any copyright issues if I want to make and sell some of these hats? I’m looking at adding some knit items to my Etsy, and I love this pattern. But definitely want permission before listing anything!

Sorry about the delayed response! Thank you so much for your interest in our Traveling Cable Hat pattern. Unfortunately, all items made from our patterns cannot be sold. All of our patterns are copyrighted and are intended for personal home use only. We hope you understand. Thank you for writing in!

Hi! I already knit the traveling cable hand warmers and I love them! I was wondering if it would be possible to knit this hat out of the same yarn? I have about 250 yards extra and would really like this hat to be the same color as the hand warmers. Thanks!

Hi. I am excited to try this lovely hat. I have some of your Merino Script on hand. Would it work for this hat? I am not so good at comparing gauges and unfortunately I’m not up for making a sample swatch!

Thanks for writing in! Unfortunately the Merino Script will not achieve gauge because the yarn is much larger in some areas and smaller in others, being a slub yarn. However, it is close in gauge, so if you are feeling adventurous, you should give it a shot! If you still want to make a hat in the Merino Script, I suggest you do our Classic Cuffed Hat pattern, which we have made in Merino Script. Please see the link to this pattern below! Good luck and happy knitting!

Hi I was very excited to start this pattern but I’m having a difficult time with my set up row my knits and pulls are off set and I ended up with too many stitches(129) instead of (120) do have any recommendations how keep track of what I stitch I have knitted. I hope this makes sense .Thank you.

Thanks for writing in! You might have increased too many on the set up row, which means you’ll have to rip back a row and start the increases again. I like to cross off each move I make during this section because there are a lot of directions. I know it’s a pain, but I have made this hat many times and it is worth all the work! Good luck and happy knitting!

Here’s a funny thing – I consistently end up with 129 stitches instead of 120, and for the life of me I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong. This is the second time I try it all over again and the second time this is happening. 🙁

I figure that I can’t have accidentally increasing my stitches in the previous rows, because I would notice if I was reaching the end of my rows at the wrong place in the pattern.

I’m new to purling front and back and making 1 right, I can only imagine that I’m doing something wrong in these are creating extra stitches…

Thanks for writing us. Make sure that you are doing the initial pfb once and only once per section. The bracketed instructions are supposed to be repeated three times only and afterward you do a series of M1R to take the knit stitches at the end of your repeat from thee stitches to six. I suggest placing a marker after each repeat and making sure you have 30 stitches in each section after you’ve finished. This way you won’t get to the end and realize you’ve made a mistake. Best of luck!

Thank you for writing in! You can knit this with the Merino Script, but it will have a different look to it because the the Merino Script is a think and thin, slub yarn. If you are planning on substituting the Merino Script I highly recommend making a gauge swatch just to be sure you’re getting the right gauge! If you have further questions, please let us know!

Thanks for your interest in this pattern. The difference in the adult size and the baby size is one cable repeat, so it would be hard to adjust the pattern. You could try to do the baby size with a slightly larger yarn. We have also knit this hat in Super Soft Merino. Please see the link below and good luck!

Purl Bee, your print options are masterful! How did I not see that before, when I would awkwardly copy and past your patterns? On the print screen, I can *customize* what I want to print! Oh, I’m in love.

Thank you for writing in! Unfortunately, I do not recommend using Spun Silk for this hat. Firstly, the gauges are very different and the pattern is hard to adapt because each cable repeat is 30 stitches. Also, I do not recommend using 100% silk for hats because once it stretches it does not bounce back. This would result in a very loose hat!

I am having a tough time with the LC, RC right after the ribbing. I’ve increased but don’t know how to start cabling… If I LC and hold the 3 stitches in front do I p1 and leave the next purl for the RC? I think it is the combo of LC, RC one after the other that is boggling my mind. Any help would be much appreciated!

Thank you for contacting us! Yes, you are correct. If you do the LC you will hold the 3 knits in front, purl 1 and then immediately do the RC. Since the RC requires that you first slip the purl stitch on to the cable needle and then knit 3 off the left needle, you should see that there is a purl followed by 3 knits after completing the LC. I hope this makes sense! Let me know if you have questions!

Thanks for writing in! For this lovely hat we used our Alpaca Pure. It comes in at roughly a Worsted Weight. The rule of thumb is that 2 strands of one weight make the next weight up. In this case, 2 strands of lace weight would roughly equal a fingering weight which is far smaller than the worsted used for this hat. This is only a guide and yarn weights can vary dramatically between producers. The only real way to know is to knit a gauge swatch. In this case, I do believe that 2 strands of lace weight will be quite a bit too small.

Hi! Quick question – I’m starting in on the ribbing for the adult size (84 stitches) and at the end of the first round I have 4 stitches that won’t be a part of the scheme “K2P2 x 4” + “K3P1” – they will be an extra K2P2. When I start the next round, do I completely start over with 4 K2P2 followed by 1 K3P1? I’m curious about the ribbing because it seems it won’t be even/consistent throughout due to the 4 extra stitches… I feel like I should have only cast on 80 stitches.

This may be a dumb question – but I’m a cabling (and relative knitting) newbie and need the help! Thanks so much 🙂

Thanks for writing us! The pattern repeat is actually *P1, [k2, p2] 4 times, k3, p1, repeat from * to end of round. You might be missing the p1 at the beginning of the repeat. Let me know if that works better!

Thank you for this! While we can’t put it on the site, it can certainly live here in the comments for those who are interested. I appreciate all your work on this and I’m sure that it will help more than a few people out with this pattern!

Can the alpaca pure yarn be substituted for the Maxima yarn? I am looking to use this pattern to make a fun beanie for my brother and the Maxima yarn has the bright colors that I’m looking for. The yarns seem to be similar in size but would the hat change drastically if I were to use the other yarn?

Thanks for the question! I think you could get away with using Manos Maxima for this project. You might want to go up a needle size on account of the thickness of the Maxima, but maybe not. Best of luck! Sounds fun!

Thanks for the kind words! The decreases actually start on round two because after your third repeat you complete rounds one and two again. The decreases will not work if ending on round six because the stitch count is different and you’ll end up with an obvious change in pattern. I suggest ending after the second repeat, doing rounds one and two, and decreasing over the 12 rounds as in the pattern. You’ll end up with more of a beanie or a watch cap. If you are up for it though, you can make up the decreases as you go whenever you want to start to eliminate stitches. Just be sure that your decreases are mimicking the cable direction as in the pattern. We do this by doing SSK for cables going to the left and K2tog for cables going to the right. It might take some experimentation but it does work!

Hi there,
Could the confusion be coming from this line in the instructions?:
“Repeat Rounds 1–12 one (three) more time(s).”
Seeing as that comes after working the 12 cabling rounds once, that adds up to four repeats (for an adult hat) before the decrease starts. I had 10.5″ after the third repeat (so, two MORE times), and was using thinner yarn and smaller needles already.

Thank you for writing us! The 12 round cable pattern is repeated twice total for the baby size and four times total for the adult size before decreasing. The adult size can be modified to end after three total repeats, which will give you more of a beanie. Also keep in mind that the decreases take place over 12 rounds, which will also add length. As for your hat reaching 10.5″ so early, it could be that your row gauge is off or that the yarn you are working with knits up differently than the Alpaca Pure. Hope this clears things up!

Thanks for the question! There is no way to adapt the pattern without adding in another 30 stitch repeat, so I suggest knitting it with an aran weight or heavy worsted weight yarn. This will make the hat slightly larger to fit a 25″ head. All the best!

Thanks for writing in to us. At the beginning of the increase section there is a pfb outside of the brackets. This should only be repeated once per increase section. In total there are nine increases per cable section. Best of luck and let us know if you have any other questions!

Thanks for writing in! You are correct, casting on 63 stitches is for the baby size and 84 stitches is for the adult size. We used circular needles and then double pointed needles to knit this hat. You will not be able to use straight needles to knit this pattern as it is constructed in the round. Knitting it on straight needles would require a reworking of the pattern that would be quite challenging. If you need help with knitting on double pointed needles, we have a handy tutorial that can be found here: https://www.purlsoho.com/create/2008/07/25/double-pointed-needles/

It is absolutely what I need, but I am still a bit perplexed by the ribbing pattern. It first goes k2, p2, as any regular ribbing would, and then suddenly k3, p1. Won’t it produce uneven parts of ribbing?

Thanks for your question! The ribbing here is purposely uneven. This is so that the cables line up nicely with the cabling. The beauty of this hat is how the cables flow into the shaping and the ribbing and this is why you will see a non-standard rib!

I’m knitting this hat for a 23 & 1/2 inch head – will there be enough stretch in the knit for this? To make it bigger could I go up in the needle size, or will this make the pattern too loose (I noticed that the pattern uses size #6 needles and the yarn recommends size #7 or #8 needles)?

Thank you for your question! I suggest that you knit this on a US 7 for the ribbing and an 8 or the body of the hat in a yarn that can handle those needles. This does include the Alpaca Pure but there are also some other heavy worsted yarns our there that would knit up nicely on these size needles. Best of luck!

I have about a 24″ head myself and am interested in knitting this hat. I almost always size up one size in my needles due to how tightly my knit. Would I also want to knit on a US7 for the ribbing and a US8 for the body, or would you recommend sizing up to an 8/9, respectively?

In addition, are there any heavy worsted yarns in particular you might recommend? Thank you!

Thanks for writing in! I suggest Woolfolk Tov or Cascade Aran for you. These are heavy worsted yarns and can be knit on a US 7 for the ribbing and a US 8 for the body of the hat. If needed, because you knit so tightly, you can also go up to a US 8/US 9 for these yarns. Best of luck!

Thanks for the question. The increase round is repeated from the * to the end of the directions. This means that you will pfb, then repeat the directions within the brackets three times and finally the directions that follow. All this will be repeated four times total. I suggest placing a marker after each section because these note your cable repeat sections (four total). Best of luck and let me know if you have any other questions.

This might be a dumb question but during the increases (right after the ribbing is finished) when it says
“Round 2: *Purl into front and back (pfb), [k1, make 1 right (m1r), k1, p2] 3 times,” does that mean you do this 4 times in total? or do you do it a total of 3 times before moving to the next section of increases? I did it a total of 3 times and something didn’t seem to line up right so i ended up taking a few rows out to start again. I hope this question isn’t too confusing!

Thanks for writing in! For this lovely hat, we used an unusual ribbing in order to make the cables flow nicely out of the ribbing, creating a cohesive look! We have seen the hat knit in 2 x2 rib as well and both are quite lovely!

Hello, I am struggling with this pattern. The color yarn wasn’t available so I bought a merino wool. It’s 50 g. The gauge is US 7-8 = 17-20 inches =4″. I tried to gauge the rib on a size 4. I keep g thing around 4 1/2 of ribbing. I don’t see how the 22 stitches can only be 3″. Thanks for your help.

Thanks for the question. Are you swatching in the round? This will ensure a more accurate gauge. Also, you might be knitting with a thicker wool. Let me know if you have any other questions and I’d be glad to help!
-Adam

Hello!!
So my knitting teacher and I are working on this pattern – obsessed with it by the way – but i am having a lot of trouble with it. So I am at the body section on step three, and I was working my way around doing my thing, until I noticed that each section had been increased at some point (Instead of having 30 loops for 4 section I had 31). I’m just curious as to what I did and how to fix it? I already back-tracked as if i just completed round 2. I hope i did not ruin it! thank you 🙂

Thank you for the question! Bummer you have 31 stitches instead of 30. I would read the directions and look back at your knitting to make sure that the stitches make sense in regards to the pattern. You’ll be able to find out pretty quickly where you are off by a stitch. Since you are not that far into the pattern I would unknit the rows of the body you’ve done and start from the increase. If you rip back to just after the increase, make sure you have 30 stitches in each section before continuing on with the pattern. Best of luck and happy knitting!